86 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



Much less oil is needed in winter; and so 

 far as giving it water is concerned as we 

 have to do in summer, a quart of water 

 once a month seems so far to be ample. I 

 very well know that the repairs have, with 

 many machines, taken a big lot of both time 

 and money; but we should all remember 

 that these new vehicles are in a great mea- 

 sure still in embryo. New inventions in the 

 way of short cuts are coming thick and fast; 

 but the time is already here when many 

 kinds of business — that is, many kinds of 

 transportation of both passengers and mer- 

 chandise — can be managed with the auto- 

 mobile quicker and perhaps cheaper than 

 by the aid of a horse. 



Now, this paper is already a pretty long 

 one; but I wish to mention one thing more 

 that iust now thrills my very soul. 



"the truth about radium." 



The above heading is the title of an article 

 in McCltue's Magazine for November. If 

 you have not seen it, and especially if you 

 are interested in the wonderful developments 

 in the scientific world, I would advise you 

 to get it and read it. When the stories first 

 came out in the papers about radium I pro- 

 nounced it a humbug, especially the part 

 that claimed it gave off both heat and light 

 as well as energy (radio-activity) without 

 being consumed, or losing any of its weight. 

 Soon after reading the article in 3IcClui e'' s 

 I imported from London a microscopic sam- 

 ple of radium. It has been in my possession 

 for just three daj's. The instrument cost 

 $9.00. It is about the size of a small seed- 

 microscope, and it contains a quantity of 

 chloride of radium; but the quantity is so 

 small that you could scarcely see it if it 

 were suspended on the point of a needle. 

 But this little bit of radium has been for 

 three da5's p ist (I do not know how much 

 longer) sending out showers of tiny shoot- 

 ing stars. It has been described some- 

 where as "the bombardment of meteors." 

 You look down in the lens of the microscope, 

 and see something I can describe only by 

 saying it looks like a piece of iron which a 

 blacksmith has overheated, throwing out 

 sparks in e%'erj' direction. We are told this 

 keeps up forever and ever without any loss 

 to the radium — at least none that can be 

 measured by the finest scientific tests. I 

 put it on my stand by my bed every night; 

 and whenever I awake to consciousness I 

 get up to see if it is still there and still glow- 

 ing. In the night time, when it is pitch 

 dark, the flashes can be seen flashing out 

 of the eye-piece, at a distance of several 

 yards. In this position it looks like a 

 twinkling star. There is a regular "twin- 

 kle, twinkle;" and when you put your eye 

 down to the ej'eglass there is that wonder- 

 ful "bombardment," a perfect shower of 

 brilliant scintillations or shooting stars all 

 radiating from a common center; and the 

 crowning wonder of it all is that it never 

 ceases. 



I can not take the space here to tell you 

 all about radium. At the present time I am 



told that a large refining factory in Ger- 

 many is working day and night to fill or- 

 ders at $2000 a gram. The dictionary says 

 a gram is equal to the thirtieth of an ounce. 

 When the article to which I have referred 

 was written, there was only about an ounce 

 of radium in the whole world; but nobody 

 knows how much there is now or will be 

 during the year to come. May God be 

 praised for these great and wonderful gifts 

 he has bestowed, and is bestowing, on those 

 who are willing to study and foil, and to 

 search out and find the gifts he has provid- 

 ed for us, even before the world was. 



IS THE "scalping" BUSINESS IN SELLING 



railway tickets a swindle? 



Mr. A. I. Root: — Vou speak of ticket-scalping as be- 

 ing a swindle. Now. I fail to see wherein it is a swin- 

 dle. Of course, it is wrong for a man to sign a wrong 

 name ; but the blame for his doing so rests with the 

 railroad company that forces him to do so in order to 

 get his rights. When any ore goes up to a ticket office 

 and buys a ticket to .some distant place he doesn't buy 

 a bit ot cardboard nor a strip of paper. He buys trans- 

 poi tation for one person Whether for himself or for 

 some one else makes no difference to the company, so 

 long as it is paid for said transportation of one person. 

 The reason there i~ so much red tape about the tickets 

 is bf cause there is money in it Some one either loses 

 his ticket or doesn't want to u'e it, or possibly for sr me 

 reason can't use it. The railroad company has been 

 paid for it, but won't give the tiansportation to any- 

 body else, simply because it has the power not to Un- 

 cle Sam pays the face value of the transportation 

 charges on stamped envelopes etc., back to any one 

 when the envelopes are damaged beyond use, simply 

 charging for the envelopes which are spoiled — a case 

 analogous to the above. 



I re 'd your articles in Gleanings with a great deal 

 of interest, and should like lo hear from you on this 

 subject again. There are too many wrongs in this 

 world yet for any of our good prominent writers to be 

 upholding any of them R. H. Yearnshaw. 



Walnut Grove, Cal. 



Friend Y., I am glad to answer you, be- 

 cause I think a good many other people are 

 making just such tnistakes as you have 

 made. You say when one goes to the ticket- 

 office he "does not buy a bit of cardboard 

 or strip of paper," etc. Now, this whole 

 matter depends on what the agreement is. 

 In order that there may not be mistakes or 

 room for argument, the railway company 

 prints what it agrees to do on every ticket 

 sold, and it seems to me they make it very 

 plain. A few days ago I went to a ticket- 

 office in a neighboring town and called for 

 a ticket to Medina, Ohio. I took the ticket 

 and laid down the money. When I handed 

 it to the conductor on the train he looked at 

 the ticket and then at me. Said he, " Where 

 do you want to go?" When I replied, "To 

 Medina," he held the ticket up before my 

 eyes, and it read to a town off in another 

 direction. I argued that I was an inno- 

 cent party in the transaction. I called for 

 a ticket to Medina, O., and paid the money 

 for it. I said, "If a ticket agent in the 

 employ of your company did not give me 

 what I asked for and paid for, 3'our com- 

 pany is responsible and not myself." 



He replied, "You and every other pur- 

 chaser of a ticket are at fault if you do not 

 look at it and see whether it reads as it 

 should. Because you did not look at the 



